A Gem of a Family Vacation
by Mrs. Alex Kurosaki
Summary: Steven begins to wonder why he only ever sees corrupted gems around Beach City and small islands. To reassure Steven that everything is ok, they plan on visiting another highly populated city across the ocean. Not even Garnet with her future vision could have ever foreseen the problems that come along with visiting London. Inspired by: stanfordtheauthor
1. Chapter 1

"Whatcha watching little dude," Amethyst asks as she leaves her room to get a snack from the fridge.

Steven stares intently at the screen as he quietly replies, "Renaldo's video about us…"

He's somber, and seems troubled by something; Amethyst can see that something's on his mind so she waits for him to say something else.

"Okay Peedee. I think that about wraps it up! Good job with the camera bro!"

At those words, Steven closes the laptop and turns to the purple gem.

"Amethyst, you guys say that you're here to protect the Earth from evil gems, but I've been thinking," he says hesitantly.

He stares off into space as he tries to find the right way to put it.

Amethyst leans against the counter and munches on some popcorn with cheese while she waits.

As he's just about to say something, Pearl comes out of her room as well.

"Good morning, Steven. Amethyst."

She gives a curt not to each as she calmly walks towards the chore wheel, a slight smile on her face.

Her finger elegantly sways around it as she chooses what to do first.

"Why don't we protect other towns and cities too? Like in other countries? Are monsters only around here because of the war? Because of us?"

Pearl snaps her once bent form up, a look of horror not at all concealed.

Amethyst just has her brows furrowed, confusion being her main reaction.

"Why… Why would you ask?" Pearl faltered.

A small sad smile came over his face.

"I'm starting to think that Ocean Town isn't the only city that's been lost…"

Compassion overcomes Pearl; she quickly makes her way over to his spot on the couch and wraps her arms around him.

"Oh, Steven. Just like your mother. Rose always worried about other living creatures' lives. That's why she took us in, why she took care of us so much."

He snuggles into Pearl's hold and stays very still.

Steven feels the arm rest dip a bit, and chubby little hands start playing with his hair.

"How come you're worried, babe?" Amethyst asks soothingly.

He doesn't respond. All he can think about is the picture of little creatures coming out of people. They would have seemed cute at first glance– if it weren't for the fact that those people looked like they were screaming in pain…

Garnet leaves the hall where she was quietly watching and, after leaning on the counter, makes an announcement.

"We're going on a trip."


	2. Chapter 2

"Steven, do you really need so many luggage bags?" Pearl asks as she tries to balance four medium sized suit cases in her hands, and a carry-on on top of her head. Amethyst chuckles. "What, is it too much for tiny Pearl here?" she asks teasingly. Pearl growls in irritation at her, but before she can say anything, Garnet grabs all four bags and holds them with one hand.

"Steven will want souvenirs, won't you Steven," she comments coolly. He had thought all the bags were filled with clothes, but practically had stars in his eyes when he realized these were so he could keep reminders.

"Ye~es!" he replies in his usual happy/excited manner. He walks with a little skip in each step as they make their through the miles and miles of grass. But eventually, he loses that skip, and he no longer has any pep. He begins to slouch while his arms become limp noodles at his sides.

"Are we there yet?" he asks in typical child-like manner after a good hour of walking. Amethyst groans in understanding, bunching up her hair as she stretches her arms up. They had been walking for three hours straight since they left the warp pad. It was one of the few that worked at all close to another populated area, so this was the only one they could use. But neither Pearl nor Garnet realized just _how_ far they were actually going to be.

"Hey, dudes! Look at that," Amethyst says as she points to a strange rock formation a little ways ahead of them.

With excitement at something new, she runs of ahead of the rest of the group to see what it is. Steven laughs and chases after her, glad to see something new. Trepidation builds at the back of Pearl's throat as she yells, "be careful!" Garnet's calm demeanor helps her feel a bit more relaxed though since, if anyone can say what'll cause trouble, it's her. They walk along briskly, yet their looped arms make it seem as if they have not a care in the world except for the two excited bundles of joy only feet away.

Pearl leans against Garnet's shoulder once they've stopped just a few steps away from the strange rock formation. They watch with discreet smiles as Amethyst and Steven run around the rocks, and even try to climb up some. Once they've tired themselves out, Steven lies down on the floor and sighs.

"Guys, I'm hungry... Are we close to any food places, you think?" Amethyst laughs at Pearl's stricken face. It seems she forgot to think about packing food for Steven what with the sudden trip and all. Yet, Garnet stays relaxed and at ease as she vaguely answers that they aren't far.

"Hey, Steven!" Amethyst starts, a mischievous grin growing on her face. "How's about you wrap yourself in your shield, and we play pinball? You be the ball, and I'll hit you against these rocks to get points, yeah?"

"Amethyst!" Pearl exclaims with that ever scolding mother voice of hers. Garnet puts down the bags and wraps an arm over Pearl's bristling shoulders. Garnet's visor shines a bright blue as she tells the young ones, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. We wouldn't want to catch a certain captain's attention just yet."

A small smirk plays on her lips as her visor becomes evenly blue and red. Pearl and Amethyst look at her in confusion, but rather than explain herself, she goes to Steven and plops him on her fantastic mass of hair, picks up the bags, then tells Steven to hold on as she begins running rapidly towards a shape in the distance. Amethyst starts laughing, suddenly full of energy again, and yells "race yuh!" as she runs past Pearl. She lets out an exasperated "huh?!" but quickly runs after to catch up.

Before long, they find themselves on a barely there dirt road. Garnet gets there first. By the time Amethyst and Pearl catch up, they see that the object they saw in the distance was actually a truck. The man driving it is a farmer heading over to a close by town for a local fair.

"Would yer like 'e taste of me cream? i go't the best cream in all the coun'y!" He spoke so proudly, and he seemed so excited. Steven couldn't help but say sure. Amethyst is always up for food, so her response was no surprise. Pearl offered a polite, "How lovely. Good luck in the fair," though she used the excuse of being lactose intolerant so as to not eat any. The farmer gave her a small squint of discontent, but accepted her denial well. As for Garnet, a small shake of her head was all it took for him to shrug and say, "Suit yourself." With that, he gave Steven, Amethyst, and himself a nice sampling before continuing on his way.

The ride along is long and relaxing, especially to Steven and Amethyst after all the running around they had done earlier. They are relieved to not have to walk anymore. Steven even finds himself taking a nap on Pearl's lap half way through the ride thanks to the gentle swaying of the car's frame and constant little bumps on the road. The farmer looks at the duo through his rearview mirror, and comments that she is a very gentle mother. Amethyst grins up at Pearl, poking the blushing gem as the gem in questions stammers out that she's not his mom. "Just his aunt, of sorts. I was very close to his mother..."

By the time they reached the town, the sun is beginning it's decent into the horizon, casting long golden steaks over the valley. It is a beautiful sight, enhanced only by the bustle of the town setting up for what promises to be an exciting, weekend long fair. Amethyst squeals with glee, jumping to and fro as she struggles to decide what she wants to do first. One stand further along already has lemonade set up, and is selling to all the thirty workers in the vicinity. Another has brightly colored balloons, and shiny metal knives. And yet another stand has various puree items on display, though not many items ready to eat. Pearl does not hide her displeasure at the idea of "that sludge going down [her] throat," when Amethyst decides **that's** the one she wants to try first.

"Amethyst, one day you're going to regret eating all that food, and I am not going to help you when you're expelling it from your body!"

Amethyst just laughs at Pearl's exclamation, and heads over to the booth. There, a tall man with short brown hair and long thin cheeks helps her decide what would taste best. A pretty young Asian woman soon joins him. Garnet watches them curiously as they whisper back and forth with each other while also discreetly pointing at Amethyst and the group.

"Is something wrong?" Steven asks Garnet. Her arms are crossed, and her lip is jutted out in a slight pout. She isn't irritated, though some onlookers might think so. Her pout soon turns into a suppressed grin as she leans down towards Steven. While still keeping an eye on the young purple gem, she whispers, "If anything weird happens, don't get scared, alright?"

Steven looks at her with a confused gaze. Moments later, a scream is heard on the opposite side of the fair. So much for a relaxing trip.


	3. Chapter 3

The Crystal Gems are quick to make their way to the scream, used to acting right away. However, rather than finding a corrupted gem, a creature that looks like an animal but isn't organic, or even an invisible creature bounding about, instead a leg and half eaten torso can be seen underneath a booth. The area is empty, and obviously still being set up. Based off of the clothing, the person was one of the crew members. The young woman whose scream had gotten everyone's attention cries besides a pool of her own puke. Bits of bile stain her cheeks and parts of her hands but the fact is obvious far from her mind.

Garnet walks calmly over and gently places her hand on the woman's shoulder.

"Can you tell me what happened?" She asks in that soothing tone usually reserved for Steven. Meanwhile, the Asian woman and the man look over the body, writing notes here and there, while still commenting between each other. Pearl walks over to them. Her face is rigid, and she looks uncomfortable, but her eyes are set on the bloody mess and her shoulders scrunched in determination. The man tells her she shouldn't really be here as this is not something civilians need to deal with. She crosses her arms in a haughty fit and replies, "If that's the case, what are you doing here too?"

The woman starts to say something, but is obviously flustered. The man places a hand on her shoulder, and steps before her. He nods his head at her as if to say, _'I got this'_ then pulls out an official looking wallet. "As you can see, we're not civilians."

Pearl raises a brow, looking at him in disbelief. Steven then jumps out from the place he had been frozen at after seeing the body. Amethyst's hold on Steven's hand must be painful, but not extremely tight as she moves along behind him as if she were some kind of oversized rag doll. When Steven gets to the Pearl's side, he looks up at the paper that Pearl is studying closely.

"You're with the FBI?" Steven all but yells in disbelief. He had always been under the impression that the FBI was an American organization, and this man definitely does not sound like any American he's ever encountered. He pulls on his jacket smugly, but right as he opens his mouth to answer affirmatively, Pearl intercedes.

"Of course not Steven. Somehow he found some fistolipe crystals and managed to manufacture them in a way so as to display some sort of identification of sorts." She flips the wallet over and tries to find where to pull the paper material out of, but before she can, the Asian woman steps forward. She looks perplexed, but at the same time, very curious.

"Fistolign?" she asks.

" _Lipe_. Fisto _lipe_ crystals. They're a very special crystal. More of a residue really. Usually produced by very gifted Sapphire crystals as they're typically able to foresee future events, but somehow these crystals are able to tap into the psyche of the holder. Or was it Steven's? No matter, that's not important at the moment. No, what matters is where you got these crystals from. The diamond authority would never authorize their creation without absolute necessity, and they most certainly not hand them over so easily to your kind. I don't understand how you got them."

The woman's mouth hangs agape. Who knew sapphires had such special qualities to them, and had never been utilized by Torchwood apart from the few pieces of psychic paper they had already had saved. But Diamond Authority? Who could this be? Were they harboring more? How could Torchwood let such information slip so easily from the mainframes?!

Garnet stands up then and crosses her arms. Her visor tints heavily with red as she bites the inside of her cheek. Steven looks her over, noticing her change in behavior. Amethyst finally steps in and luckily helps change the direction of the sudden tension.

"Gar, _what happened?_ This is gross, and... I'm scared." Garnet turns to look at her then, and quickly softens. Amethyst's lip is jutted out, and her eyes fixed in a fearful position. Her arms and legs are tight in nerves, and parts of her look on the verge of shimmering into a new shape. Garnet bends down to both Steven and Amethyst's level and says, "I'm sorry. This is not what was supposed to happen, and I don't know how I could have missed this. I'll get you guys home safely soon, ok."

Amethyst nods but doesn't meet Garnet's eyes. She just looks at the floor, away from the body, and rubs her left elbow with her right hand. Steven, whose face is still pale from seeing a human mangled like that, glances quickly at Garnet and nods to let her know he understands, then rubs Amethyst shoulder to help soothe her. She may be much older than Steven, but she's used to protecting people. To saving them before anything like this can happen. Well, as far as he knows. But then again, corrupted gems have never been intent on eating people before.

This is no corrupted gem.


	4. Chapter 4

At half past 7, Steven throws himself onto soft, warm blankets. Pearl wanted to go home right away, but Steven was drained. He had been so strong for Amethyst, but he's only a child. He's not supposed to be strong in the face of death. He should be frightened and traumatized. Yet, Steven with his ever compassionate heart worked to help calm those that were lost.

The woman who had found the body would never forget the young boy who took her hand and asked, "Are you alright?"

She may forget _why_ exactly he asked thanks to the "soothing tea" the agent, Owen, had brought her, but she will forever remember the curly haired boy with a star for eyes, and chubby hands that radiated warmth and comfort as they wrapped around her own.

As for Amethyst, all she can do is lie in the bed besides the window and look over the darkening city.

 _'What could've done something like that?'_ she wonders. Her breath is slow, bated, and she remains pensive as she tries to figure out her place in the universe. See, Amethyst has always been painfully aware of how different she is from the humans. She looks too different, she's too strong, and she doesn't age the same. Very rarely has she ever been able to connect to a human on that intimate level she so desperately craves. And even if she does, all too soon, their split second aging not only changes them, it takes them away through death.

Her sole comfort until this point was that, despite how different she is from her sister gems, she at least knows that life off of earth would look like the gems she's known from the moment Rose Quarts found her in the Kindergarten. But no. That's not true...

Because gems don't eat. Gems don't kill.

Yes, gems will attack. And yes, they can maim and cause injuries that lead to death, but a gem would never purposely try to kill another living creature in the way that this human was ripped apart.

As her eyes glaze over, no longer looking at the city, but rather at the sky that soon starts to twinkle with stars as the nightfall engulfs the town, she can't help but wonder, _'How could I be so wrong?'_

She's scared, and shocked, and numb but overcome. All she can do at the moment is lie down and stare-and think...

Thinking is never a good idea when you have too much time on your hands. And when you're a gem, you always have time.

Gems don't age. Gems don't grow. Gems are forever, as they were.

Those thoughts of inadequacy, those feelings of inferiority start to come to the forefront of her mind. Amethyst knows that thoughts can hurt worse than physical wounds sometimes, but it never fails to surprise her just how sharp those thoughts can be.

Steven snuggles into the covers, trying to forget what he saw. He's always had a habit of taking those things that he doesn't like, those horrible thoughts and memories and feelings that he doesn't want to deal with, and pushing them waaaaay down in there. Right now is no exception. But he can tell Amethyst is not ok. Part of him wants to tell her his method of coping. But part of him wants to let her know it's ok; that's the part that wins over as he finds himself getting out of his bed and crawling under the covers with Amethyst.

Amethyst flinches at the sudden contact, but when she sees those chubby little fingers trying to intertwine with hers, all she can do is smile and let a few unwelcome warm tears roll down her cheek. Steven doesn't comment on her light shakes. Amethyst doesn't push him away. Even after they both fall asleep, they stay wrapped around one another.

When Pearl walks in to check on them a few hours later, she can't help wish that Rose was still here. _Her_ Rose, not just her gem. Garnet is a few steps behind her, already knowing what she's going to say.

"Are you sure this trip was a good idea?" Pearl asks quietly, not wanting to wake the young pair. Garnet takes her glasses off, shaking her head and then placing a hand on Pearl's dainty shoulders.

With a sigh she responds, "My future vision can only show me so much. You know I can see the various ways that the future can possibly take. This one just didn't seem likely..."

With a start, Pearl pulls away, throwing Garnet's hand off and she begins to loudly exclaim, "YOU KN-"

Quickly, she sharply whispers, "You knew we would encounter life-forms that cause such gruesome deaths?"

Garnet's three eyes take on a look of horror, and she's quick to respond, "Of course not. I wouldn't have thought this was a good course to follow if I did. What I speak of is this future, here, where our youngest family members are wrapped in each other's arms not out of love but out of fear. I saw a future where this scene took place, but I never fathom'd it would be because of something as horrible as we've seen today. Believe me, Pearl. I wouldn't have done that to them. Never."

Pearl tries to stay mad, but her anger is no match to what she's really feeling: fear.

"What do we do, Garnet? I'm not Rose. _You're_ not Rose. No matter how hard we try, we're not like her... Can we handle this?"

Garnet sighs, and turns to look at the duo yet again.

"For their sake, after all we've seen, we have to."


End file.
